I can't understand why this was something they had to think about before deciding to remove the photo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Google to Remove Street View Photo That Shows Murder Scene of Teen
In a quirk of coincidence, a satellite image used in a Google Street View photo was captured just as police were investigating the boy's murder scene.
Google is taking the very unusual step of replacing an image in its extensive Street View photo collection after a grieving father expressed his anguish that the online photo captured the scene of his son's 2009 murder.
The case emerged recently through news reports from KTVU Channel 2 FOX television in Oakland, Calif., which reported on Nov. 17 that Jose Barrera of Richmond, Calif., had asked Google to pull the photograph after he discovered it online earlier in the week. The aerial image, which shows police detectives walking around an area near some railroad tracks, also shows the body of Barrera's 14-year-old son, Kevin, who was shot and killed at the scene on Aug. 15, 2009.
Barrera told the television station that he wanted to have the image removed in honor of his son's memory. The image was captured by a satellite as part of Google's normal imaging projects and coincidentally happened to capture the scene on the day that the boy's body was discovered.
In the California case, Google announced that it will honor Barrera's request.
"Our hearts go out to the family of this young boy," Brian McClendon, the vice president of Google Maps told eWEEK in a statement. "Since the media first contacted us about the image, we've been looking at different technical solutions. Google has never accelerated the replacement of updated satellite imagery from our maps before, but given the circumstances, we wanted to make an exception in this case. We believe we can update this in eight days, and we've spoken to the family to let them know we're working hard on the update."
The murder of Kevin Barrera is still unsolved, according to a story in The San Francisco Chronicle. "Richmond police spokeswoman Sgt. Nicole Abetkov said homicide detectives who were on scene have confirmed that the image does in fact depict the crime scene that day and the body on the ground is actually Kevin Barrera," the story reported.
Google does blur the faces of people who are captured in other Street View images, as a policy. Vehicle license numbers are also typically blurred when captured in the images.
http://www.eweek.com/cloud/google-to-remove-street-view-photo-that-shows-murder-scene-of-teen.html/
and an excerpt from an earlier news report:
Father wants Google to remove image of dead son
...But according to technology analyst Rob Enderle, the Barrera family may face an uphill battle as they try to have the offensive image taken down.
“When they remove it for one person for one thing, then how do they not do it for others?” said Enderle. “And so they've found it easier just to say no.”
But Barrera told KTVU on Sunday that he won't take no for an answer, as he's planning to lodge a complaint and possibly reach out to lawmakers for help.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/father-wants-google-remove-image-dead-son/nbwb5/
The Daily Mail has included photos in which they have blurred the teens body.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509737/Google-Earth-agrees-replace-murder-image-Kevin-Barre...
